thoughts from places: the 9-5

It’s interesting working at the university that I previously attended as a naive-reformed-photographer-converted-designer. I loved wandering around campus taking photos. I used to shoot with a film camera before I could afford a DSLR. I’d develop the black and white photos myself in the campus darkroom.

The day I started working here I went to the library where I spent so much of my time devouring photography books, to my favorite nook that was as isolated from other people as I could find. I went to the visual arts building where I took the majority of my senior-level classes. I ran into a design professor who gave me my First Panic Attack, and my drawing professor who was my mentor while I was in school. We ended up talking for an hour about art and what it means to be an artist in an increasingly digital world and how to survive as someone who creates for a living. I went into the Ritter Gallery where I had my graduating exhibition.

I largely enjoyed university life but I remember being very impatient about starting adulthood and being Officially Independent. I’ve been a capital “A” Adult, an adult who was paying bills and taking care of other people, for a few years now and in that time I’ve had six jobs. Of those six jobs four of them were part-time because I couldn’t find a full-time job. Two of them I left for higher paying roles at companies that folded shortly after. I’ve quit a job only to return to it later. I’ve experienced the stresses of being yelled at by your bosses, of working in a toxic environment, and unemployment.

Necessity and youth makes one do things that are never good for you down the line. It’s not until now that I’ve learned to make decisions for Future Melissa instead of ones that solves Current Melissa’s short-term problems. I’ve made a lot of rash decisions that I’ve paid the consequences for and I’ve done it enough times to learn my lesson. Growing up is good.